DRESS CODE
PREPARED FOR:
ASSOC. PROFESSOR HJ SA’ABAN HJ SALIM
BEL 492 LECTURER UiTM MALACCA
IN FULLFILMENT FOR BEL 492
BY:
AHMAD FIRDAUS BIN BUKRI
2007281618
MOHD IZAZUL RAHIM SAIFULLAH B. MOHD IKRAM
2007281522
30th AUGUST 2007
Acknowledgement
Assalamu`alaikum warahmatu`Llahi wa barakatuh.
Al-hamdulillah was-salatu was-salam `ala Rasulillah wa `ala `alihi
Wa sahbihi ajmain…
First of all, we would like to extend our appreciation to those who helped in the completion of this research.
For most, we are grateful to thanks to Assoc. Professor Hj Sa’aban Hj Salim
, whose lectures were a joy to attend. He did not speak, he proclaimed. He did not talk, he mesmerized his students. From him we had learned that if we want student to learn, we have encourage them want to learn. One way to do that is to make our lectures worth attending. These thanks also go for keeping to us the deadlines of this project.
Last but certainly not least, this written project owes its success to the talents and tireless efforts of each every member class of Bachelor Business Administration (Finance) 3E. Their contribution and personal sacrifices are truly appreciated and will be remembered
Assalamu`alaikum warahmatu`Llahi wa barakatuh.
Al-hamdulillah was-salatu was-salam `ala Rasulillah wa `ala `alihi
Wa sahbihi ajmain…
First of all, we would like to extend our appreciation to those who helped in the completion of this research.
For most, we are grateful to thanks to Assoc. Professor Hj Sa’aban Hj Salim
, whose lectures were a joy to attend. He did not speak, he proclaimed. He did not talk, he mesmerized his students. From him we had learned that if we want student to learn, we have encourage them want to learn. One way to do that is to make our lectures worth attending. These thanks also go for keeping to us the deadlines of this project.
Last but certainly not least, this written project owes its success to the talents and tireless efforts of each every member class of Bachelor Business Administration (Finance) 3E. Their contribution and personal sacrifices are truly appreciated and will be remembered
General purpose:
Dress code for student.
Specific purpose:
To inform our audience the important of implementing the dress code for UiTM student.
Central ideas
The relationship of an appropriate dressing and grooming with the performance of the student.
Objective: to determine how an appropriate dressing may affect the performance of the student’s study.
Reflect the high standards of the community.
Objective: effect of the good grooming to the level of standard of the community.
Reflect a sense of pride in self, one’s academic achievements, one’s school, and the District.
Objective: to discuss the effect of implementing the dress code towards pride in self, one’s academic achievements, one’s school, and the District.
Introduction
Dress code can be defined as an accepted way of dressing for a particular occasion or in a particular social group. Actually there is a lot of dress codes introduced nowadays such as dress code for student which is for school and higher learning education, a business casual dress code where its establish to allow the employees to work comfortably in the workplace and professional dress code which codified because many professionals have never been taught appropriate professional appearance. But in this report we are going to discuss only the dress code for the student especially UiTM student. There is a study on student’s performance that say students that succeed both academically and socially and are prepared for the future after they graduate from university. This is because one’s behavior, actions, and performance are affected by the way people dress. Appropriate student dress and grooming are important factors in the orderly operation of the university. In the future, one certainly will have to follow rules, regulations, and dress codes of employers. Therefore, full cooperation between the home and school is expected.
The relationship between an appropriate dressing with the performance of the students in their study.
Here we are going to determine how an appropriate dressing may affect the performance of the student’s study. As far as we concern, the dressing is related with the appearance of a person. As stated in one statement which is the judgments that made about people based on the professional image they display as a result of appearance and behavior and the student are the person who dealing with teachers, and lecturers. The way they dress and groom will indicates the student personality him or her. There are several ways or situation where the student’s dressing will be evaluated and one of it is through presentation. When it comes to the presentation of an assignment, the way student dressed will affect to the confident level of the student. If he or she dresses appropriately, the student will be more confident in delivering his or her assignment. But then, what about the audience, is the dressing fit the audience, is the student’s appearance presentable. All these questions will affect the performance of the student’s presentation. Sometimes the way student dress up will also affect the confident and attention of the audience towards the presenter. This is because the student is about to sell or market him or herself, where they need to convince the audience, in this case the appropriate dressing may help them to get an extra credit from the audience and also good marks for the presentation.
Reflect the high standards of the community.
When we talk about the community, the first things that cross to our mind are that, the races. For example in our country, the high number of people among races in Malaysia is Malay. Malay is also known as Muslim which is in their religion, Islam do mentioned to them to dressed well, and all the clothes that allowed by the Islam for Muslims to be followed already stated in the holy Quran. But then nowadays, we can see most of the students especially the Muslims they do not take the dressing matter as a serious issue. To them as long as they are not naked, then it would be fine. But they do not realize the impact of the attitude towards the pride and dignity of the community. In UiTM, most of the students are Bumiputra. They are the future leader or in other words, they are the one will lead the country. Dressing of these student need to be improve because all of things that done by them will give a big impact to the Bumiputra, Muslims, UiTM and Malaysia. For example, the student will not only evaluate by their lecturer, but also by the outsiders. This is where the student might need to sit for an interview and the student will not only evaluated on how do they response to the questions, the knowledge of the student, but also the dressing and grooming of the student. Any result of the evaluation, will not only reflect to the student but also to the institution where the student come from. So if the student did not perform well, people will talk about the Bumiputra student appearance. Whether it is good or bad, normally the people will talk about the bad things only rather than the good things, and of course in the real situation, UiTM known as the university that fully supported by the government. Anything bad about the UiTM itself or the student it will be stated in the front page of the newspaper.
Reflect a sense of pride in self, one’s academic achievements, one’s universities, and the District.
The dressing style of somebody will reflect their sense of pride in themselves. What we are wearing will reflect who we are. So, for student we must dress well so that the lectures or social will have a good image on us. Usually, dressing will give others the first impression on us. To become a success student we must have a good impression among others so people will trust us. To make sure that people will have a good impression on us, we as a student must be ensure that our clothes are well fitting, clean and freshly pressed. Shoes should be clean, polished and free of scuff. For men, the dress shirts should be long sleeved and generally white in color; light blue or pin-striped. The tie should be properly knotted with its tip ending at the middle of the belt or at least touching the top of your belt buckle. Ensure that the color of shoes and socks matches the color of trousers, and the color of belt matches the colored your shoes. For ladies wear a well cut dress in a good fabric(fine cotton, silk, or line),worn with a blazer or well fitting classic coordinates, avoid plunging necklines and long slits up the skirts . Jewellery worn should be simple and elegant. Limit rings to one per hand. Avoid extremely high heeled shoes. We also must make sure that hair is clean and free of dandruff, ears and finger nails are clean, and breath is fresh. Perfume worn must be of good quality with light fragrance. Women should avoid excessive make up.
When we talk about dress code we are like to focus more on, how to build a professional image because we know that after we are graduated, we as students will involve in pprofessional manner. So what is the professional image all about?
Professional image is about the image we project in the world of work. It Consists of Personal Appearance Clothing, Grooming, Manners, Etiquette, Personal behavior, and Communication effectiveness. So when someone can improve or implement the professional image in them, they can build the confident in themselves as well as to who are meet them for example boss or our employer. Besides, judgments are made about people based on the professional image they display as a result of appearance and behavior. This occurs before the individual’s level of competence or performance is determined. Professional image was viewed by two major perspectives that are Appearance and Personal Behavior. Personal appearance means we want to develop our ability to dress appropriately and present ourselves in an attractive manner, while personal behavior means we want to develop our communication skills and our effectiveness in the use of proper manners and etiquette So that we can recognize the importance of appropriate personal behavior.
We can know the professional image just by glance. There are several attributes of a professional image. The first one is appropriate professional appearance, it consists of professional dress and grooming (based on several factors) can enhance our authority, promote respect, aid in promotion, promote our advancement opportunities involves selecting appropriate clothing (based on several factors).second is use of correct manners and etiquette. It consist of making introductions and appropriate greetings, being able to initiate and maintain conversations, being able to express appreciation, knowing appropriate dining rules and protocol, extending courteous behavior to others, knowing how to behave in difficult situations. The next one is appropriate personal behavior, and effective communications. It consist of respecting the organization and its rules, being a loyal employee, conducting yourself and business in an ethical manner, assuming responsibility, and valuing diversity.
MENBUSINESS WEAR AND CASUAL BUSINESS WEAR
MEN’SCASUAL
WOMENBUSINESS WEAR AND CASUAL BUSINESS WEAR
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
CONCLUSION
From what we have discussed on the above, we can say that besides the good grade student also must have a good dressing style. This is important because as we can see, nowadays student are not really cares about their dressing. For example in uitm, we know that the majorities is islam, but unfortunately, its hard to see student wear attire that are according to Islamic law (syariah) especially among women students. It looks like they are more comfortable to wear a small shirt and tight jeans rather than wear a baju kurung or a dress that are big so that their body curve not revealed. For your information dressing and grooming appropriately helps to enhance our professional image. As aptly stated by Janet G. Elssea, `` you never get a second chance to make a good first impression.”1 What we wear and how well groomed we are often speaks volumes about our personality. We often judge people by their clothes. In the words of Bill Blass`` I firmly believe that what give others sense of what and who you are the way you are dressed. It is the first impression.”2
The common dressing and grooming faux pas committed by men are wearing unmatching socks and trousers, wearing scuffed shoes, the tip of the tie not touching the tie of the belt buckle, using an overpowering perfume, and wearing a striped shirt with a striped tie.
In the case of women, the common dressing and grooming faux pas include wearing unmatching blouse and skirt, adorning too much jewellery, excessive make up, false eyelashes, and poor fit which does not hide their less favorable body parts.
RECOMMENDATION
1) DO SOMETHING ABOUT THE IMPLEMENTATION OF LAW
As we all know, at uitm there is law that are related to the dressing or dress code for uitm student. But the problem is uitm is not seriously taken actions that are according to that law. We can see that many students in uitm dye their hair, wear a small shirt that revealed their body especially among the girls. But the worst is no action are taken to this particular student, and they will continue to wear like that until they graduate and the others student especially the junior will follow their step, and this will continue forever. because a group of student, and no action are taken, the others student will follow their step and the worst things is all uitm students will wear like that and the management or the uitm staffs including lecturer not taking any action. Maybe uitm management should make a new act that make wear tudung is compulsory to all female student and there is exceptional for non muslim.
2) CHANGE BEFORE LATE
Nowadays when something bad are happen people will said those are uitm student, basically we can’t blame the society because this are cause by uitm itself, when we talk about drug, clubbing, disco, and even unmarried sex, this all are involve uitm student. So, how come the society not talks the bad things about us, we are the one who make the mistake, so we are the one who should endure this shameless. So we must change not only the style of we are dress but including our attitude and others.
The worst thing is when people continue to talk the bad things about uitm student; the employer will become not confident to take uitm student as their employee. So we can imagine this things actually, the student that are graduate are thousand in number, so if no company like to take uitm student as their employee, where we want to go.
The worst among the worst is when we die before we change. We can just imagine where we are when we die in yellow hair because of dye, for ladies, they shave their eyebrow, free hair and die before we change that attitude.
3) FASHIONABLE OR FOOLISH Our corporate culture and the role we play in it should guide our choice of business attire. Some organizations still expect top male executives to wear a dark gray suit on Monday and a navy suit on Tuesday with an understated tie and starched white shirt. These companies expect female executives to wear a dark, skirted suit with a solid, light blouse. However, more and more businesses are moving to full-time business casual at every level in the organization. Some just have one or two days each week that are casual. And the definition of business casual varies, ranging from jeans to blazers.
Just as in business communication, business dress requires us to know our audience. We need to gauge what attire will be right for the audience and the circumstance. This all hinges on the norms of the culture of the industry, region, company, division, department, and function. While our attire can be a vehicle for personal expression, we can pay a price for violating the written and unwritten codes of our culture. ‘‘Always know the price before you pay.”
4) DRESS FOR BUSINESS, NOT PLEASURE Business attire is different from social attire and tends to be more formal. Determining just how formal can be as slippery as satin or silk. ‘‘What's one person's floor is another's ceiling.” But one thing is certain: the parameters that cover business attire are narrower than they are for social attire. For example, social attire can be more suggestive or flashier or make more of a statement, while business attire should be tuned to the needs of the business circumstance.
In business, our clothing and grooming should not distract. Rather, they should direct attention to our face and particularly our eyes. When we connect with someone else's eyes, they tend to listen. But who can stay focused on eyes when our manager has her fingers manicured with lavender polish and 10 bolts of silver lightning striking her cuticles, or our purchasing agent has a copper ring pierced through his nose.
Typical formal business attire has an advantage because it can easily direct listeners to our eyes. A light shirt or blouse under a closed dark business jacket forms a "V" that opens toward the face. A contrasting tie or scarf can heighten this effect. Wearing some red near the face can help draw the eyes of our audience to our own.
In contrast, a flashy belt or belt buckle can draw the eye to the waist. Light hose and shoes draw attention to a woman's legs. Bright buttons, shiny tie tacks, bulky broaches, or other conspicuous jewelry can also draw the eye. The same goes for clothing that is sheer, shiny, or clinging.
5) DRESS TO FIT OUR AUDIENCE When we're in front of a group giving a presentation, making a speech or just plain talking, we need to choose our attire to match the event. For example, we will typically want to dress one notch of formality above our audience. That means if they're wearing slacks and shirts or blouses, we may want to add a sports jacket to our ensemble. On the other hand, wearing a suit and tie in front of an audience in jeans and T-shirts is rarely a good idea.
Regardless of what we're wearing, make sure it works. Make a thorough assessment of how we look in front of a full-length mirror. And don't hesitate to get a second opinion. Check not just for fashion sense but also for fit. Nothing sends a worse message than a poorly tailored jacket. One common offense is sleeves that hide our hands. Hands speak worlds about capability. They also reinforce our words. Hiding them can send a subtle message of incompetence. The jacket sleeve should end at the middle of our wrist bone, with the shirt sleeve extending three eighths of an inch beyond. Since almost everyone has one arm longer than the other, make sure the tailor checks the length of both sleeves.
If we are not wearing a long-sleeved blouse or shirt under a sports coat, the jacket length should extend to the end of the wrist bone. This will preserve the visibility of our hands without calling attention to the bareness of our forearms. Conversely, our jacket sleeve should be shorter if we wear French or double cuffs, to better display the cuff and links. Pant legs should reach the tops of our shoes, forming a single break a little above the point of contact. For men, a reminder about socks: they should cover our calves.
6) SPEAK TIGHT; DRESS RIGHT Business presenters need more than a professional look. They need to be able to move in their clothes. Narrow skirts, tight pants, or form-fitting jackets restrict movement. To capitalize on large body gestures, be sure our clothes are tailored so we can move. And make sure they really fit. If we gain or lose weight, admit it and proceed immediately to our tailor or dressmaker. There is no excuse for ill-fitting business attire. If it doesn't fit, we must tailor it.
NOTES
1. Janet G. Elsea, First Impression, Best Impression (New York : Simon & Schuster, 1984), p.7
2. Ann Marie Sabath, Business Etiquette in Brief (Hoolbrook, MA : Bob Adam Inc.,1993), p.7
Dress code for student.
Specific purpose:
To inform our audience the important of implementing the dress code for UiTM student.
Central ideas
The relationship of an appropriate dressing and grooming with the performance of the student.
Objective: to determine how an appropriate dressing may affect the performance of the student’s study.
Reflect the high standards of the community.
Objective: effect of the good grooming to the level of standard of the community.
Reflect a sense of pride in self, one’s academic achievements, one’s school, and the District.
Objective: to discuss the effect of implementing the dress code towards pride in self, one’s academic achievements, one’s school, and the District.
Introduction
Dress code can be defined as an accepted way of dressing for a particular occasion or in a particular social group. Actually there is a lot of dress codes introduced nowadays such as dress code for student which is for school and higher learning education, a business casual dress code where its establish to allow the employees to work comfortably in the workplace and professional dress code which codified because many professionals have never been taught appropriate professional appearance. But in this report we are going to discuss only the dress code for the student especially UiTM student. There is a study on student’s performance that say students that succeed both academically and socially and are prepared for the future after they graduate from university. This is because one’s behavior, actions, and performance are affected by the way people dress. Appropriate student dress and grooming are important factors in the orderly operation of the university. In the future, one certainly will have to follow rules, regulations, and dress codes of employers. Therefore, full cooperation between the home and school is expected.
The relationship between an appropriate dressing with the performance of the students in their study.
Here we are going to determine how an appropriate dressing may affect the performance of the student’s study. As far as we concern, the dressing is related with the appearance of a person. As stated in one statement which is the judgments that made about people based on the professional image they display as a result of appearance and behavior and the student are the person who dealing with teachers, and lecturers. The way they dress and groom will indicates the student personality him or her. There are several ways or situation where the student’s dressing will be evaluated and one of it is through presentation. When it comes to the presentation of an assignment, the way student dressed will affect to the confident level of the student. If he or she dresses appropriately, the student will be more confident in delivering his or her assignment. But then, what about the audience, is the dressing fit the audience, is the student’s appearance presentable. All these questions will affect the performance of the student’s presentation. Sometimes the way student dress up will also affect the confident and attention of the audience towards the presenter. This is because the student is about to sell or market him or herself, where they need to convince the audience, in this case the appropriate dressing may help them to get an extra credit from the audience and also good marks for the presentation.
Reflect the high standards of the community.
When we talk about the community, the first things that cross to our mind are that, the races. For example in our country, the high number of people among races in Malaysia is Malay. Malay is also known as Muslim which is in their religion, Islam do mentioned to them to dressed well, and all the clothes that allowed by the Islam for Muslims to be followed already stated in the holy Quran. But then nowadays, we can see most of the students especially the Muslims they do not take the dressing matter as a serious issue. To them as long as they are not naked, then it would be fine. But they do not realize the impact of the attitude towards the pride and dignity of the community. In UiTM, most of the students are Bumiputra. They are the future leader or in other words, they are the one will lead the country. Dressing of these student need to be improve because all of things that done by them will give a big impact to the Bumiputra, Muslims, UiTM and Malaysia. For example, the student will not only evaluate by their lecturer, but also by the outsiders. This is where the student might need to sit for an interview and the student will not only evaluated on how do they response to the questions, the knowledge of the student, but also the dressing and grooming of the student. Any result of the evaluation, will not only reflect to the student but also to the institution where the student come from. So if the student did not perform well, people will talk about the Bumiputra student appearance. Whether it is good or bad, normally the people will talk about the bad things only rather than the good things, and of course in the real situation, UiTM known as the university that fully supported by the government. Anything bad about the UiTM itself or the student it will be stated in the front page of the newspaper.
Reflect a sense of pride in self, one’s academic achievements, one’s universities, and the District.
The dressing style of somebody will reflect their sense of pride in themselves. What we are wearing will reflect who we are. So, for student we must dress well so that the lectures or social will have a good image on us. Usually, dressing will give others the first impression on us. To become a success student we must have a good impression among others so people will trust us. To make sure that people will have a good impression on us, we as a student must be ensure that our clothes are well fitting, clean and freshly pressed. Shoes should be clean, polished and free of scuff. For men, the dress shirts should be long sleeved and generally white in color; light blue or pin-striped. The tie should be properly knotted with its tip ending at the middle of the belt or at least touching the top of your belt buckle. Ensure that the color of shoes and socks matches the color of trousers, and the color of belt matches the colored your shoes. For ladies wear a well cut dress in a good fabric(fine cotton, silk, or line),worn with a blazer or well fitting classic coordinates, avoid plunging necklines and long slits up the skirts . Jewellery worn should be simple and elegant. Limit rings to one per hand. Avoid extremely high heeled shoes. We also must make sure that hair is clean and free of dandruff, ears and finger nails are clean, and breath is fresh. Perfume worn must be of good quality with light fragrance. Women should avoid excessive make up.
When we talk about dress code we are like to focus more on, how to build a professional image because we know that after we are graduated, we as students will involve in pprofessional manner. So what is the professional image all about?
Professional image is about the image we project in the world of work. It Consists of Personal Appearance Clothing, Grooming, Manners, Etiquette, Personal behavior, and Communication effectiveness. So when someone can improve or implement the professional image in them, they can build the confident in themselves as well as to who are meet them for example boss or our employer. Besides, judgments are made about people based on the professional image they display as a result of appearance and behavior. This occurs before the individual’s level of competence or performance is determined. Professional image was viewed by two major perspectives that are Appearance and Personal Behavior. Personal appearance means we want to develop our ability to dress appropriately and present ourselves in an attractive manner, while personal behavior means we want to develop our communication skills and our effectiveness in the use of proper manners and etiquette So that we can recognize the importance of appropriate personal behavior.
We can know the professional image just by glance. There are several attributes of a professional image. The first one is appropriate professional appearance, it consists of professional dress and grooming (based on several factors) can enhance our authority, promote respect, aid in promotion, promote our advancement opportunities involves selecting appropriate clothing (based on several factors).second is use of correct manners and etiquette. It consist of making introductions and appropriate greetings, being able to initiate and maintain conversations, being able to express appreciation, knowing appropriate dining rules and protocol, extending courteous behavior to others, knowing how to behave in difficult situations. The next one is appropriate personal behavior, and effective communications. It consist of respecting the organization and its rules, being a loyal employee, conducting yourself and business in an ethical manner, assuming responsibility, and valuing diversity.
MENBUSINESS WEAR AND CASUAL BUSINESS WEAR
MEN’SCASUAL
WOMENBUSINESS WEAR AND CASUAL BUSINESS WEAR
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
CONCLUSION
From what we have discussed on the above, we can say that besides the good grade student also must have a good dressing style. This is important because as we can see, nowadays student are not really cares about their dressing. For example in uitm, we know that the majorities is islam, but unfortunately, its hard to see student wear attire that are according to Islamic law (syariah) especially among women students. It looks like they are more comfortable to wear a small shirt and tight jeans rather than wear a baju kurung or a dress that are big so that their body curve not revealed. For your information dressing and grooming appropriately helps to enhance our professional image. As aptly stated by Janet G. Elssea, `` you never get a second chance to make a good first impression.”1 What we wear and how well groomed we are often speaks volumes about our personality. We often judge people by their clothes. In the words of Bill Blass`` I firmly believe that what give others sense of what and who you are the way you are dressed. It is the first impression.”2
The common dressing and grooming faux pas committed by men are wearing unmatching socks and trousers, wearing scuffed shoes, the tip of the tie not touching the tie of the belt buckle, using an overpowering perfume, and wearing a striped shirt with a striped tie.
In the case of women, the common dressing and grooming faux pas include wearing unmatching blouse and skirt, adorning too much jewellery, excessive make up, false eyelashes, and poor fit which does not hide their less favorable body parts.
RECOMMENDATION
1) DO SOMETHING ABOUT THE IMPLEMENTATION OF LAW
As we all know, at uitm there is law that are related to the dressing or dress code for uitm student. But the problem is uitm is not seriously taken actions that are according to that law. We can see that many students in uitm dye their hair, wear a small shirt that revealed their body especially among the girls. But the worst is no action are taken to this particular student, and they will continue to wear like that until they graduate and the others student especially the junior will follow their step, and this will continue forever. because a group of student, and no action are taken, the others student will follow their step and the worst things is all uitm students will wear like that and the management or the uitm staffs including lecturer not taking any action. Maybe uitm management should make a new act that make wear tudung is compulsory to all female student and there is exceptional for non muslim.
2) CHANGE BEFORE LATE
Nowadays when something bad are happen people will said those are uitm student, basically we can’t blame the society because this are cause by uitm itself, when we talk about drug, clubbing, disco, and even unmarried sex, this all are involve uitm student. So, how come the society not talks the bad things about us, we are the one who make the mistake, so we are the one who should endure this shameless. So we must change not only the style of we are dress but including our attitude and others.
The worst thing is when people continue to talk the bad things about uitm student; the employer will become not confident to take uitm student as their employee. So we can imagine this things actually, the student that are graduate are thousand in number, so if no company like to take uitm student as their employee, where we want to go.
The worst among the worst is when we die before we change. We can just imagine where we are when we die in yellow hair because of dye, for ladies, they shave their eyebrow, free hair and die before we change that attitude.
3) FASHIONABLE OR FOOLISH Our corporate culture and the role we play in it should guide our choice of business attire. Some organizations still expect top male executives to wear a dark gray suit on Monday and a navy suit on Tuesday with an understated tie and starched white shirt. These companies expect female executives to wear a dark, skirted suit with a solid, light blouse. However, more and more businesses are moving to full-time business casual at every level in the organization. Some just have one or two days each week that are casual. And the definition of business casual varies, ranging from jeans to blazers.
Just as in business communication, business dress requires us to know our audience. We need to gauge what attire will be right for the audience and the circumstance. This all hinges on the norms of the culture of the industry, region, company, division, department, and function. While our attire can be a vehicle for personal expression, we can pay a price for violating the written and unwritten codes of our culture. ‘‘Always know the price before you pay.”
4) DRESS FOR BUSINESS, NOT PLEASURE Business attire is different from social attire and tends to be more formal. Determining just how formal can be as slippery as satin or silk. ‘‘What's one person's floor is another's ceiling.” But one thing is certain: the parameters that cover business attire are narrower than they are for social attire. For example, social attire can be more suggestive or flashier or make more of a statement, while business attire should be tuned to the needs of the business circumstance.
In business, our clothing and grooming should not distract. Rather, they should direct attention to our face and particularly our eyes. When we connect with someone else's eyes, they tend to listen. But who can stay focused on eyes when our manager has her fingers manicured with lavender polish and 10 bolts of silver lightning striking her cuticles, or our purchasing agent has a copper ring pierced through his nose.
Typical formal business attire has an advantage because it can easily direct listeners to our eyes. A light shirt or blouse under a closed dark business jacket forms a "V" that opens toward the face. A contrasting tie or scarf can heighten this effect. Wearing some red near the face can help draw the eyes of our audience to our own.
In contrast, a flashy belt or belt buckle can draw the eye to the waist. Light hose and shoes draw attention to a woman's legs. Bright buttons, shiny tie tacks, bulky broaches, or other conspicuous jewelry can also draw the eye. The same goes for clothing that is sheer, shiny, or clinging.
5) DRESS TO FIT OUR AUDIENCE When we're in front of a group giving a presentation, making a speech or just plain talking, we need to choose our attire to match the event. For example, we will typically want to dress one notch of formality above our audience. That means if they're wearing slacks and shirts or blouses, we may want to add a sports jacket to our ensemble. On the other hand, wearing a suit and tie in front of an audience in jeans and T-shirts is rarely a good idea.
Regardless of what we're wearing, make sure it works. Make a thorough assessment of how we look in front of a full-length mirror. And don't hesitate to get a second opinion. Check not just for fashion sense but also for fit. Nothing sends a worse message than a poorly tailored jacket. One common offense is sleeves that hide our hands. Hands speak worlds about capability. They also reinforce our words. Hiding them can send a subtle message of incompetence. The jacket sleeve should end at the middle of our wrist bone, with the shirt sleeve extending three eighths of an inch beyond. Since almost everyone has one arm longer than the other, make sure the tailor checks the length of both sleeves.
If we are not wearing a long-sleeved blouse or shirt under a sports coat, the jacket length should extend to the end of the wrist bone. This will preserve the visibility of our hands without calling attention to the bareness of our forearms. Conversely, our jacket sleeve should be shorter if we wear French or double cuffs, to better display the cuff and links. Pant legs should reach the tops of our shoes, forming a single break a little above the point of contact. For men, a reminder about socks: they should cover our calves.
6) SPEAK TIGHT; DRESS RIGHT Business presenters need more than a professional look. They need to be able to move in their clothes. Narrow skirts, tight pants, or form-fitting jackets restrict movement. To capitalize on large body gestures, be sure our clothes are tailored so we can move. And make sure they really fit. If we gain or lose weight, admit it and proceed immediately to our tailor or dressmaker. There is no excuse for ill-fitting business attire. If it doesn't fit, we must tailor it.
NOTES
1. Janet G. Elsea, First Impression, Best Impression (New York : Simon & Schuster, 1984), p.7
2. Ann Marie Sabath, Business Etiquette in Brief (Hoolbrook, MA : Bob Adam Inc.,1993), p.7
